Meet You At The Bar
by SaruXIII
Summary: Shepard catches up with an old friend.


**A.N. A quick little story I put together after going through the Mass Effect series with my new character, who romanced Garrus.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Mass Effect.**

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Upbeat techno music blared inside of the club. A dark-haired woman sitting at the bar shook her head, thinking to herself how odd the music was, considering the locale. Across from her, a young Asari served drinks to the other patrons, dancing back and forth between them with all the gracefulness of her species. As the blue-skinned woman glanced in her direction, dark-haired beauty waved a hand to get her attention.

"Yes, Commander Shepard?" the Asari asked, idly shaking a container side-to-side as she approached.

"Have you heard any word about a Turian coming in? Goes by the name of Garrus Vakarian?" Shepard asked, raising her voice to be heard above the din of the crowd.

The Asari shook her head apologetically, "No ma'am. I'm sorry...Maybe Peter might know?"

Shepard winced, "He's probably not doing me any favors after the things I said to him when I came in. I was a bit rude."

Looking surprised, the Asari said, "I've never heard you say anything out of the way to anyone before."

"It was before your time," Shepard said, smiling. "Besides, I was having a pretty bad day."

"Well...I still have a hard time picturing you being impolite to anyone," there was a pause followed by, "Can I just say again what a pleasure it is to speak to you?" the Asari gushed, laying her hands on top of Shepard's.

Shepard smiled up at her, "Thank you very much, Rachael."

Rachael beamed back at her, "Its so cool that we have the same first name! I'm so glad my parents named me after you. I mean, after all the amazing things you did for everyone in the galaxy! I-" she cut her sentence short when she noticed Gabriel watching her from the other side of the room. "Sorry, Commander, but I've gotta get back to work before Gabe sends word to the big guy that I'm slacking off."

Chuckling, Shepard waved her off and went back to nursing her drink as the Asari returned to serving the other patrons. She wondered idly what Garrus was going to think of this place. She'd find out soon, she supposed, assuming that her intel was good. Her musings were cut short by a soft tap on her shoulder. Looking back, Shepard expected to see the scarred face of her favorite Turian. She fought to hide her disappointment when she saw a man with short black hair and a trimmed mustache standing behind her.

"Well hello, senorita," the man greeted, his voice thick with a Spanish accent. "Are you drinking alone."

"At the moment. I'm just waiting on someone. He should be here any minute if Raphael knew what he was talking about..." she trailed off, then added, "Then again, if he's anything like me he'll end up in processing for a few weeks for telling the doorman to shove his scroll where the sun don't shine."

"That is unfortunate. May I buy you a drink while you wait?"

Shepard shook her head, "Thanks but-"

"She has a very attractive Turian to attend to," a voice broke in from behind them.

Both turned to look and saw a Turian man in ceremonial clothing standing a few feet away. "Garrus..." Shepard whispered. The bar stool clattered to the ground as she jumped up and embraced him, burying her face into his shoulder. "I missed you," she said softly. A sob ripped from her throat, catching even her by surprise as she burst into tears she had not expected to shed.

Garrus wrapped his arms around her slender frame, patting her back gently to sooth her sobbing. "I missed you too. The galaxy hasn't been the same." The Turian glanced up and saw that the other man had drifted away into the crowd, leaving the two of them alone. Garrus led Shepard over to the bar and helped her sit down. "This bar have anything good?"

"Yeah," Shepard croaked, wiping her eyes. She cleared her throat and continued. "They have anything you can imagine. You can even try some levo drinks if you want." A laugh escaped her lips, "I tried a liquefied Turian, can't say I'm a fan. But your people do make one hell of a beer."

"I may try one of those jello-shots your were always going on about. But that can wait I suppose." Garrus trailed off, wrapping an arm around her waist. "Who would have thought that not only did we have the same heaven, but it even has a fully stocked bar."

"I guess we're just lucky. Watch out for Peter though, he hasn't like me since I cussed him out at the gates," Shepard said, smiling.

Garrus smirked, "Well, you had just been through a harrowing quest. You had been forced to fight twisted versions of the races you were trying to save. You got shot with a reaper's laser; and to top it off, you gave your life to help every race, organic and synthetic, evolve to a new level. You deserved to be a little pissed." There was a pause, and then he added, "EDI wanted me to tell you that she was very grateful."

"I'm glad. So did her and Joker get together?"

Garrus laughed, "Yeah, and that old bastard was still running around when I finally kicked the bucket. The bonding did some amazing things, diseases like Joker's were wiped out completely. Those two even had a baby..." He got quiet, "We could have had that human-turian baby if you had survived."

She placed a hand on his face, "I'm sorry, Garrus. I didn't want to leave you alone, but it was the only choice I had."

He nodded, "I know, Rachael. But now we've got all the time in the world to make up for our lost chances."

"Be careful, Garrus," Shepard said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder at the Asari, "There's a lot more 'Rachaels' running around since I stopped the Reapers."

Garrus nodded, "People always want to name their children after war-heroes."

"Speaking of war-heroes...What happened to you?"

Garrus cleared his throat, "Uh...You really don't want to know..."

Rachael pulled away and punched him in his shoulder. "Come on, spill. You know how I died, now tell me how you died!"

One talon came up to scratch under his chin. "I...um...kinda crashed my car-"

"After all the hell you gave me over my driving-"

"-Into a lake. There was a lot of flailing...finally interrupted by a serious case of drowning."

Shepard stared at him for a long moment, then finally poked him in the chest with her index finger. "You're pulling my leg, aren't you, Vakarian?"

Garrus raised an eyebrow. "Who, me?" he asked innocently. "Never."

"You ever gonna actually tell me?"

"Later. I'm sure there are other things you'd rather know about."

Shepard thought for a long minute. "How was everyone else doing when you left?"

Garrus took her hand in his. "What you did was amazing. The life span of all organics nearly doubled. Joker was already one-hundred and fifty when I died, and he didn't look a day over sixty. Tali helped lead the re-population of her home-world, with the help of the geth."

"I'm glad they decided to help one another."

"Yes, its always good when genocide is avoided." Garrus squeezed her hand. "Liara and Javick became very close after they wrote that book."

"How close, exactly?"

"Well...Lets just say that Javick is no longer the last Prothean."

"I thought Asari could only produce more Asari." Shepard said, obviously confused.

Garrus chuckled, "I told you, that Synthesis stuff did some amazing things .But you know, if I took the time to tell you everything, we'd be in this bar for an eternity."

"I'm game," Shepard said, "I've been waiting a long time to get a status update on my comrades."

"Well...I could give you the run down right now. However, I was more interested in finding out if this place had any place we could go to speak in 'private'," Garrus asked, raising a brow coyly.

"We can go back to my place. I waited one-hundred and twenty-five years to hear from you. I guess I can wait a few more minutes while we get 're-acquainted'"

"Minutes? Now you've hurt my feelings."

"I'll make it up to you." Shepard leaned forward, pressing her mouth firmly against his. Pulling back, she whispered, "I love you, Garrus Vakarian. I always have and I always will."

He stared into her sapphire colored eyes for several moments before reply, "I love you too, Rachael."

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**A.N. Well, I know no one has heard from me in a while. Here I am, and unlike those two, I'm not dead. I hope everyone enjoyed this, it was written quickly, so please excuse any minor mistakes.**


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